City Insights

Brighton Thai Festival

By Jennifer Drury

Colourful celebration

The Thai Festival Brighton was a spectacular indoor celebration of Thai food from four different regions of Thailand, and Thai handicrafts, traditions and cultures. It was a family friendly day with lots of opportunities for visitors to sample and join in the activities.

The Thai Brighton Festival

Photo by Tony Mould

Welcome parade

The day began with a Thai Parade to welcome the Mayor of Brighton, Councillor Geoffrey Wells and the Mayoress Mrs Sally Wells. Once inside Hove Town Hall, there was a wealth of wonderfully tasty and spicy Thai food to sample, alongside Chang Beer and Monsoon Winery Thai Wines. Traditional Thai handicrafts were also on sale at the many colourful side stalls in the festival.

Traditional and modern

There was a very full list of activities and demonstrations including traditional and modern Thai dancing and Thai boxing and martial arts demonstrations. For those looking to lose the stress of modern living there was an opportunity to have a Thai massage tester session.

First festival staged

This was the first Thai festival to be staged in Brighton and Hove and the organisers were very happily surprised by the attendance numbers. It certainly was a great opportunity to sample the wonderful food and colourful culture of Thailand